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I am from temperate California – we do not have “indoor” arenas – only covered ones, or open ones, and honestly I have never ridden in one where you could not see clearly – so no need to yell door or gate or any of it. Interesting to hear the cultural differences though!

See, we had a "blind" indoor at one barn and tried the "Door!" call. All of the horses would listen for the call and knew there was about to be an opportunity to spook. We gave it a good few months, then decided it was better for people coming in to just wait by the door until they saw a safe opening.

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I've always said "DOOR" when entering an indoor ring. At my current barn I say it and then look to make sure it's clear because you can't see the corners when you are standing outside the entrance.

Also when I am riding in there, if the person can't see me from the entrance I will say "you're fine" so they know where I am.

I once had another boarder ask me if it was OK to come in with her horse while I was riding. I don't think anyone has ever asked that before - I'm not used to such politeness! Most people just yell DOOR and come right in.

Well, we have a pretty good "peephole" it's about 4"x6" and I do exercize the guys off line-that said we have a fellow boarder that will always fling open the door,and "oh yo're in here?" Really?We try not to tie up the arena if someone's going to ride/lunge(sp),but we have some games that we play around with-sending them with hand signals for over something,around cones-1 game I know is stupid- she/he's gettin' away,they'll go to where you point,and cut somebody off-not hellbent,just go to and block.

Everywhere I have been with an indoor, attached or unattached to the barn, the standard has been to call "door", wait a moment/check for oncoming riders, then enter. If there is a conflict (rider having issues, about to ride past the door) and it is not evident to the entering rider, someone will call out for them to wait. I really appreciate this practice and prefer it to the "check then enter" policy that many barns seem to have. I ride a lot of babies and young/quirky horses and I appreciate the heads-up that another horse is entering so I can be on guard for any resulting silliness. This also permits me to ask a rider to wait if I am working through a touchy transition or similar.

While I do fundamentally like the "ask and be granted permission to enter" idea, I think it would be impractical to implement at my current barn, which is a very active training facility and where it is not acceptable for any rider to monopolize the arena.

gosh it's been so long since i've been at an indoor with solid doors I'd forgotten about the "door" call! The last couple places I rode at an indoor both had just an indoor that was like...just an arena inside a huge barn, rather than a seperate entity inside another building. Not sure if that makes sense or not. Like, you can see over the sides so it's easy to see who is in the arena and whether or not the gate is clear, so no unpleasant surprises.

See, we had a "blind" indoor at one barn and tried the "Door!" call. All of the horses would listen for the call and knew there was about to be an opportunity to spook. We gave it a good few months, then decided it was better for people coming in to just wait by the door until they saw a safe opening.

Interesting. I found that very often the horses would hear the "Door" call and expect the door to open (we had a yell door, wait 2-3 seconds and open the door, poke your head in and wait for a clear spot to enter). When someone stood outside and yelled "Door" and waited for a response the horses would get antsy because they knew the door was supposed to open, but it wasn't happening. A rider who is concentrating, especially at a faster gait at the far end of the arena very often doesn't hear the shout, so waiting for a response doesn't work.

Anyway, I don't yell in response to a "door" call unless I've got a loose horse, or need a few seconds to prepare for the door to open (green horse, too close, etc), or the person outside is evidently going to stand there yelling "Door" until someone responds.

We had one boarder who had trouble with the call and then open order. Made at least one rider hit the dirt when the door was opened without warning just as the horse went by.

I am from temperate California – we do not have “indoor” arenas – only covered ones, or open ones, and honestly I have never ridden in one where you could not see clearly – so no need to yell door or gate or any of it. Interesting to hear the cultural differences though!

Same in TX, trainers from around the world, and no yelling "door!" I loved it. It really bothers me to yell like that, I'm a very quiet, slightly monotone person--yelling is not my friend.

At the military type riding school I learned at, we were trained to call 'May I come in?' and he would reply yes or no. Much more civilized than just hollering 'Door' and bursting in.
you should really wait for someone to call back 'OK'...but most people just shout it as they're shoving the door open. Kind of rude.

It's been awhile since I boarded somewhere this was a necessity- for several years I rode at a barn that had an entryway into the indoor with that door kept open, out of prevailing wind direction, so that you could be seen entering. Previous to that, common courtesy dictated that one holler "DOOR PLEASE!" at the top of your lungs so that you spooked the horse at the far end of the ring. Then you waited a minute to see if anyone yelled "WAIT!" and if nobody did, you walked in. Rarely did anyone get acknowledgement other than of the "don't come in, he'll buck me off!" type.

Hmmm.. Well, where I board, the arena is covered, not enclosed, so you can pretty much see anyone coming. Most people are very careful about entering the arena, and since a very small part of one end is partially screened by trees, people usually (but not always) will say something like, "horse coming...." But most of the time, they just approach the entrance, check that it's clear, then enter without saying anything. Of course, we are a smallish barn, and having more than two horses in the arena at the same time is a rare occurrence and often provokes comments about it being rush hour!

My only experience with an indoor is with one that has a gate, and clear visiblity.. I'm very surprised that only one post describes a door with a "peephole". I would think that it would be easy...and much safer...to create a peephole for any solid door.